Edinburgh Evening News - Politics - SSP starts prescription charge fight

SCOTTISH Socialists are ready to launch a summer campaign to harness public support for their bid to scrap prescription charges.

They will run street stalls and campaign with petitions to get across their message that the £6.30 charges are "a tax on illness" which hits the poor, disabled people and the most vulnerable in society.

Lothians SSP MSP Colin Fox has tabled a Bill for free prescriptions and has already won backing from enough MSPs for it to progress to the next stage.

Today, Mr Fox quoted figures from the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux showing that last year, 750,000 prescriptions were not dispensed in Britain because of the charge. And he said the devolved government in Wales had pledged to scrap prescription charges within the next four years.

He said: "Ninety per cent of Scots are already exempt from the charges and it is time to end the unfairness that is visited on the remaining ten per cent.

"The SSP believes that free prescriptions will mean a healthier Scotland.

"If the Scottish Executive really cares about the health of the people of Scotland it should follow the example of the Welsh Assembly and scrap prescription charges."

The Executive has said it has no plans to scrap prescription charges, but is committed to reviewing them for people with chronic health conditions and young people in full-time education or training.